The hierarchy of living complexity

I fully agree with your statement:” i do believe that an understanding can arise of the system in it's whole operation without the need to  divide it into a description of interacting subparts”

This is precisely  what  the concept of a minimal complexity is about. It is the amount of complexity necessary to sustain the life of a living entity like a bacterium. Currently we cannot explain how this minimal complexity sustains life, and the dissection of the bacterium will not clarify it. So we define a variable called WOB (Wisdom of the Body) which “knows” how to sustain the life of a bacterium. WOB has two meanings: 1. The process set and 2. The faculty to optimally control the set.  WOB is also an open system.

We may now define a hierarchy of complexities in all manifestations of life:
WOB(i+1) = Sum[WOB(i)]. 
For instance Bio-film[WOB] =  Sum of all bacterial WOBs

In embryogenesis WOB(0) is the zygote and WOB(n) is the newborn. This iteration illustrates a basic property of life. As the complexity of a living process emerges each of its stages is equipped with a WOB. In other words each stage is an emerging WOB.


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